Happy Birthday Baby!

Okay, more pictures and baby's story!

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On Tuesday when we went in for my appointment my doctor walked in and said, "What are you doing here??" He said he was shocked that we hadn't delivered yet and that the first thing he'd done on Monday morning after his vacation was check the delivery list to see when our baby had been born. We joked that we'd been waiting for him. :) Since I have the fibroid tumor he did really want to be present for our delivery in case of any complications and since he wasn't on call the rest of the week and has Thursday's off he asked if we would come in the next morning to be induced.

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We weren't too set on the idea, but he said everything was perfectly ready and the baby was already good sized and only going to get bigger so we went ahead and made the appointment. They told us to call in the morning to see if a bunch of people had come in the night and we would have to reschedule so we figured that if it wasn't meant to be we would know in the morning.

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So we got everything ready, Noni and Papa came to spend the night with K, and we got up at 6:00 a.m. and headed to town to have our baby!

They broke my water around 8:30 a.m. but nothing was really happening. The contractions were very sporadic and not very intense so a few hours later they started me on the pitocin. Even after that they didn't really pick up so the nurse doubled the dose. I was getting very frustrated that nothing was happening and thinking that we were going to miss having our doctor deliver after all, at the rate I was going.

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I think it was around 1:00 p.m. that the contractions all the sudden lined up and got really regular at about two minutes apart and a minute long. They went from a very mild pain to intense pain very quickly.

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I had been thinking I wanted to try and see if I could do it without an epidural, but the pain came on so fast and so hard that I caved. Note to self: next time don't try to be brave, get the epidural right away! So at about 1:00 I was at a four. I asked for an epidural and got one at 1:30. At that point I had jumped up to a seven. I was in a lot of pain by then and just wanted relief.

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It took a few minutes to take and my doctor came in. He was going to head back to his office while I finished dilating but I felt like I had to push so he decided to check me before he left. That was just a few minutes before two. I was at a ten and ready to go. I pushed through only two contractions (so much nicer than K's 2 hour pushing marathon!) and our beautiful baby girl made her entrance at 2:04 p.m.

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It was amazingly fast. Even though we were at the hospital since 8:00 that morning, pretty much everything happened in one hour. That morning I told myself I was never going to be induced again, but if things are going to happen that quickly I'm going to want to be in the hospital when I do go into labor...I'm just getting the epidural right away next time. Haha. I at least want time to enjoy it. :) I applaud all of you who have had natural births! It's definitely not for the faint of heart!

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So that is Baby S's birth story...now on to the pictures! :)

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Here is our waiting crew.

Sean, K, Grandma, Grandpa, Papa, and Noni (taking the picture)

Papa keeping K occupied.

Daddy and Baby

I realized when I was getting this post together that this is the only picture of just S and I at the hospital. You can't even see her. Haha :)

K meeting her sister for the first time. She kept saying to everyone, "Want to see my baby?" She has been SO wonderful to the baby. No jealousy at all! Thank you Lord! She loves her to pieces and just wants to kiss kiss kiss her!

Papa and S

Noni - I love the look on S's face. Her face is a lot more round than K's was. Probably because she was 2 and a 1/4 inches shorter but 2 oz. bigger.

Grandma

Grandpa

Uncle Sean

Mama (Great-Grandma)

And we finally remembered to get one of S on her own. Look at that dark hair!

Our happy little family of four!

Time to head home. We don't look too impressed. :)

Mommy, K and S all slept on the hour drive home. When we pulled in and I woke up I looked into the backseat at our two precious girls sleeping so peacefully and said to T, "I'm guessing it won't always be this easy." Haha:)

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I look as tired as I feel in this picture but K looks so sweet!

S did NOT sleep hardly at all in the hospital. She had one good three hour stretch and after that EVERY time I would finally get her to sleep some other doctor or nurse would come in with something that needed to be done to her. She definitely has her days and nights mixed up. We are working on it, but I think it's going to be a rough couple of days.

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She is a very good baby though, and my mom is here playing with K, doing laundry, and Papa is currently fixing us all dinner. We are very blessed.

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So for now I will give you one last look at our little angel.

It will probably be a few days before I get around to posting again. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. We appreciate it more than we can say!

Baby Girl Is Here!

Baby Girl arrived at 2:04 P.M.
Weight: 8 lbs. 3 oz.
Length: 18 1/2 inches

Mother and baby are both happy and healthy! We should go home tomorrow and will post pictures then! Thanks for your prayers!

One Little Monkey Jumping On the Bed

Still no news. Apparently baby is quite content to stay where she is. I have an appointment today and I'm hoping the doctor will give me some hope, but at the moment it feels like she's going to stay in there forever! I kept waking up last night with contractions, but they obviously didn't get me anywhere. We have plans to go out to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant tonight and I told T I would be brave and order some spice. You get to pick how many stars, representing spice, your meal has and I normally say zero. We're hoping to smoke her out. :)

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In the meantime I wanted to try out the video feature on my new camera so I just filmed K doing one of her favorite activities...bouncing on "Grandma Grandpa's bed" (they are the only ones that ever sleep in our guest room so that's what she calls it). :)

Hayden is the high school senior that we sold our blue car to, and he is also the brother of one of K's little friends. She likes to talk about him and how "We don't have a blue car anymore, it's Mr. Hayden's now!"

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One of her new things is to do something funny and then she says, "Wanna say 'do it again do it again'?" And she will do it about twenty times in a row if you keep saying it. It's funny how kids can do the same thing over and over and over again without getting bored.

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Well, hopefully we'll have some news soon! Until then...

Shark Attatck

I have been attacking my house for the past month, but it just got easier! This past week I have been getting to know my handy dandy "Shark" portable steamer! I won it off my friend Rachel's blog! She did a giveaway and I actually won! She is the link to the right that says, "Grasping for Objectivity in my Subjective Life".

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Her blog is my favorite thing to read everyday. If you are looking for a smile or all out laughter I suggest you head over and check her blog out. It's hilarious!!! She has a daughter that is just a few months older than K and it is so funny to read her hilarious spin on life with a toddler. Here is the link so you can easily go see. http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/

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Anyway, she's awesome and I highly recommend it...PLUS she has fun giveaways where you win stuff! This is actually the second thing I've won! The first thing was a set of two cds that I got around Christmas time. I love them! The steamer, however, takes the cake. This thing is pretty cool! I am so ready for baby, and getting so bored that I have literally been cleaning the walls...and the baseboards...and the cupboards. I also steamed several sets of curtains that I have been too lazy to take down and iron. It's pretty fun.

I'm glad I've had something to distract me this week b/c I am so tired. Tired of heartburn, tired of being uncomfortable, tired of not being able to sleep, tired of going to the bathroom every half an hour. I am just tired. Tired of being pregnant and SO ready to meet this little one! I love being pregnant and the miracle of experiencing a life growing inside you, but I've put in the time and I'm ready to meet her.

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I'm only six days away from my due date. I honestly didn't think you could be dilated for 6 weeks before having your baby, but I have proved myself otherwise. So if you think of me this week, please send up a prayer that I will have patience, a good attitude, and a joyful heart as we anticipate the arrival of this little girl. I will just keep working to trust and have the faith that she will be here at just the right time. :) Hope you all had a great weekend!

Baby Blanket

Well, I have every single thing checked off my list...even finishing the baby blanket I made for this little one! We have so many blankets, but I wanted her to have something that I made especially for her since most of the things we have were given to or made for K.

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This project took a LOT longer than I anticipated. I have been working on it on and off since October! Okay, I really didn't work on it at all in November, but there were still a lot of hours put in!

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The blanket is crocheted, but I only know one stitch and I didn't want to take the time to learn how to put it together so I just made all the squares and the filler stripes and then whip stitched them together with a needle. I'm sure that is totally wrong, but it worked for me.

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I was also too lazy to learn how to make a border and thought that just tying a fringe all around would be an easy way out...oh boy was it not! It took forever to tie all those little strings around the edge! I had some help though. It is kind of funny but Grandma, Noni, Mama, and Auntie Nae all (at different times) helped me tie some of the strings on. I think I like that even better. So now S's blanket is a gift that all of us worked on.

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It turned out pretty cute...bigger than I thought it would, but I like it. :)

K had been watching me work on this while Grandma was knitting so whenever I wasn't using my crochet hook she would pick it up and wrap a piece of yarn around it and say, "I knitting now." She would do it for several minutes at a time.

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She also saw Grandma knitting a hat for baby and wanted one too. Grandma said she would make one so K went off to play. She came back about five minutes later and said, "Where my hat, Grandma?" I guess she thought it would be a quick project. :)

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P.S. I feel back to normal although I am starting to lose some of the energy I have had for the past month. I have taken a long nap with K two days in a row. My doctor is on vacation until Monday so I am going to try to take it easy this weekend. I love my doctor. He is the reason we drive an hour into town ever week so I'm really hoping that baby girl waits until he gets back! But I won't be too upset if she decides to come soon. :)

True or False?

False. False labor that is. VERY frustrating!

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We had a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon and on the way in I started having contractions. They started at six minutes apart, then went to five, then four, and by the time I saw my doctor (the office was really busy and we had to wait about an hour) they were coming steadily at 3 minutes apart (but hardly painful at all).

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So he checked me and said I had made progress, but he didn't know if it had been in the last hour or just over the last week. Since we live an hour away and he was on call anyway he asked us to do some shopping, hang around town for a bit, and then come in and get checked again to see if things were indeed beginning and if they weren't we could head home.

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So what do you do if you think you are in labor? Go buy furniture of course! :) T had found an insanely good deal on some couches over black Friday weekend but they were all damaged so he was given a rain check. They JUST came in yesterday, but I think they were worth the wait! Right now you can buy this couch for $699 and the matching chair for $499 and we got both pieces for $456 (including tax)!!! Talk about a good deal!

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They definitely aren't the fanciest or best quality we've ever seen, but for that price you can use them and throw them away later! I actually really like them though...very comfortable, just the look I was going for, and it's the first furniture (other than K's crib/nursery set) that we've ever bought! Everything else we own T either made (our bed, table, coffee table, night stands) or was handed down to us (our current couch belonged to my parents, and will find a new home in our breezeway/family room).

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So here is our beautiful new couch.

And it's lovely overstuffed companion. I think this is going to be my new favorite reading place!

So back to my story...we bought the couches and I was still contracting regularly, but they were still very mild...more of a backache with a little lower stomach pain. We went to dinner and T and K got some hamburgers. I had been feeling weird all day and hadn't eaten more than a few bites since breakfast.
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My mom came and met up with us so she could take K if necessary and we headed back to the hospital to check things out. I was thinking that we would be shown to a office type room, get checked, and then either get admitted or go home, but we had to go through the whole process...signing in, getting a room, wearing the gown, the whole bit! They hooked me up to the monitors and checked me. I hadn't made any progress but they wanted to monitor it for a while.
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There was one GREAT thing about all this. We learned that the visitor restrictions were lifted on Friday so K gets to come up to the hospital room after all!!! I am so excited! I had been praying about this for months...and I just thought the answer was no, so I was so happy when God gave us a resounding YES! Thank you, Lord!
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It was getting late at this point so we just decided to let my mom take K home. I read her a book before we left and my mom took a picture. K's expression made me laugh out loud when I looked at it this morning. Maybe she's not as prepared for baby as I thought! :)

My doctor was busy with an emergency, so by the time he got up to see me we had been there for nearly an hour and half. He said there really wasn't enough progress, and if I was 39 weeks (four more days!) he would have broken my water and given me some pitocin, but since I am still at the 38 week mark he just wasn't comfortable doing that.
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I understood, but it was REALLY hard to go through all that and be IN the room all ready to go and then be told that we could just go home. Especially when I was regularly contracting every 2 to 3 minutes. How am I supposed to know when it's the real thing?? I am hoping that my water will just break like it did with K. That was easy. No timing, no guessing. Water broke, twenty minutes later the contractions started strong at two minutes apart. She was born exactly 7 hours later. I didn't fully realize at the time what an easy birth experience I had with her.
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So all in all it was a pretty frustrating evening, but I am trusting that God knows exactly when this baby is supposed to be born and He will let us know in His good time. T said something profound on the way home, "God holds everything in His perfect time, we just wish sometimes that we had His watch!" How true!
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I was hoping to leave the hospital with one of these.
(K at just a few hours old)

And instead I left looking like this.

But I am trusting that He will get things going in His own good time.
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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Ka-Boom

Last night at 2:15a.m. there was a tremendous, floor shaking KA-BOOM, followed by shrieking, crying, and other general mayhem.

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Yes, she fell out of bed...again! The time before was a small thump and she was asleep on the floor before T even got up there. Not this time. She cried and cried, and I had to rock her for about ten minutes to get her to settle down enough to go back to sleep.

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This morning the first thing I noticed when she woke up was a big scrape on her face. It's not a scratch, more of a line of broken blood vessels. The flash of my camera took out most of the color...it looks a lot worse in person. Poor thing.

I have no idea what we are supposed to do about this problem. She already has bed rails on the bed so I don't even know how she is falling out. Has anybody else had this problem? Any suggestions? I guess we could tie her to the bed, but she probably wouldn't fall asleep. :)

Another doctor's appointment this afternoon...I'm hoping for some progress, but that's been my story for the past month. She's gotta come out sometime! Right? :)

Baby Shower

Last weekend the ladies at our church gave me a shower! It was so sweet! They decorated everything so cute with fresh roses and fun Winnie the Pooh alphabet books which we got to keep! Everything was so nice; I loved it!

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My grandma and mom were able to come so we got a four generations picture. Grandma K came down too and spent the night since the shower didn't start till 7:00p.m.

We were truly showered with gifts! There were so many nice things! And we also got a few gift cards, so we were able to purchase the few things we still needed after getting all those wonderful gifts. We are totally set with everything we need. Now we just need a baby to use everything with! :)

K was a big helper and unwrapped every present for me. She was so funny. If it was an outfit she would hold it up and say, "Ohhh, it's so cute!" in a sing-songy voice. She exclaimed over each present. She got a fun present too, a big blow up seal that you hook up to a water hose in the summer from the family of one of her little church friends. So sweet!

The same gal that gave her the seal also made this adorable diaper cake! It is so fun! There were little toys, bibs, decorations, etc. tied all over the cake and the whole thing was sitting on a beautifully crocheted lavender blanket that I just love. It is such a sweet color and makes me smile just to look at it!

There was such a nice turnout and we really appreciated all the love and support that the church showed us. We have only been at this church a year but they are so warm and welcoming that we have already made many friends. It's wonderful to find a church where you just feel like you are at home.

No baby news yet. I am still feeling good and getting lots of stuff done every day, but we are definitely ready to meet this little one!

Big Sister Kit

Oh, boy we had a rough night last night. K has no heat in her room so when we moved her upstairs we purchased one of those small forced air room heaters.

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Well when we went to town yesterday we turned it off for the first time and when we got back it was past bedtime so we hurried through the bedtime routine, hit the power button on the heater and left.

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Apparently you have to specifically set it every time. Instead of it being set on 70 degrees we just turned it on. So at about 4:30 in the morning I heard K get up and out of bed. I gave her a few minutes, hoping she would get back in bed, but when I heard her playing quietly I went upstairs.

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I opened the door to a blast of heat. It had been on all night and the thing said it was 87 degrees. Her face was all flushed like she had a fever. I guess she thought it was time to get up b/c she was out of bed, with the light on, having just put her "church shoes" on and starting to get her toys out.

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It took quite a while to cool the room down and get her back to sleep. I think we got back to sleep somewhere around six. Ugh. Live and learn I guess.

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Anyway, that is totally off the subject of this post, I just needed to share the misery of our night. :)

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When I started packing K's things for her upcoming sleepover at Noni and Papa's (while we are at the hospital) I thought it would be fun to get her a special bag to put everything in. Backpacks are definitely not in season. This is the only one I could find other than big outdoorsy camping ones. It was just plain pink...pretty cute but boring. So I decided to embroider her name on it...and then the bottom looked really plain so I put a little flower garden on it.

I tried to think of some fun things to put in there that she would be excited about and be looking forward to. We included the Big Sister book that Noni and Papa bought her when we found out we were having a baby.

And I found this cute little book of stickers and princess paper dolls for only three dollars.

Since she is so into baking and cupcakes are one of her favorite things we bought her the stuff to make pink cupcakes for her sister's "birth"day. Of course we had to have "spintles" to go on top. :)

I also bought a big pink poster board, markers, and she picked out these Pooh stickers to make baby a welcome poster like they do in the Big Sister book.

So she's all packed and ready to go. Now it's just the waiting.

She loves her "pack-pack" and has been wearing it all over the house. She keeps saying, "I'm ready to go to Noni's!" and I keep telling her that we have to wait until God decides it's time for the baby to be born. I'm not sure she's accepting that anymore...she's ready to get the show on the road!

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday and hadn't really made any progress at all from last week. He doesn't seem to think it will be any time soon and said, "See you next week." on our way out. But T is trying to get a bunch of stuff wrapped up at work so he can take some time off so I guess it is good she isn't here yet, and I'm getting lots of stuff done in the meantime.

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One thing I am really bummed about is that K is not going to be able to come up to the hospital to meet the baby. B/c of the H1N1 they have a really strict visitor policy right now. Visitors under 18 have to be direct siblings AND have to have proof of being vaccinated against H1N1. We chose not to vaccinate her for very specific reasons, so there is no way we are going to have it done now...and it has to be done two weeks prior to the visit so it is probably too late anyway.

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So all my plans about how their first meeting was going to go are down the tubes and I'm trying hard to come up with a new mindset. It's funny how your expectations can make you so set on something. Their first meeting is just going to have to be here at the house, which seems so anticlimactic, but maybe it will work out for the best anyway.

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We are praying hard for the timing of the birth and hoping that we only have to stay one night in the hospital and can then go home the next morning. I know that God has it all under control and He can work it out MUCH better than I could ever try to orchestrate. :) Now we just have to trust Him!

New Year's and A Shower

Okay, my last holiday post!

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Every year we alternate spending Christmas and New Year's with our families. Whichever family has New Year's usually just treats it like Christmas. So after "Auntie Taren" left we headed out to the farm for our second Christmas.

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K discovered the joy of tattoos. Grandma bought her a Christmas pack and after showing her once, K knew just what to do. She probably would have covered her entire body in them if we hadn't stopped her. :)

It was just us and Grandma and Grandpa on the actual New Year's Eve so they turned down the temperature on the hot tub for K and I and we all went out and sat in the falling snow. It was K's first time to go in and she loved it! We didn't stay in very long but she had a great time and it was so beautiful with the snow falling softly all around us.

2nd Christmas!

Cousin E is in love with trains so Grandma and Grandpa got out all their Dickens village stuff and little train set. The kids loved looking at it and Grandma even let them play with the things! K thought it was great too!

We still have our "stocking" stuffer exchange, that is so big it requires laundry baskets. :) We have started drawing names for presents to cut back, but we still get each person a small stocking stuffer...it's a lot of fun and the kids love it!

Sometimes when I look at K lately I just wonder how on earth she has gotten so big. It has gone by in the blink of an eye, even though I have tried so hard to enjoy every moment. They really do grow up too fast...but I'm sure I'll have to remind myself of that in a few weeks when I am up for the 3rd time in the middle of the night. :)

After our Christmas celebration we had a baby shower for Auntie Nae! Grandma went with a snowflake theme and it all turned out so cute! Here are my two beautiful sister-in-laws!

Auntie Nae starting in on the gifts!

My mom and Grandma came, and we had a good turnout, but we still ended up with piles of food! I guess we figured the ladies would eat a lot more than they did...maybe everyone was sticking to their New Year's resolutions. Haha:)

And we had to get one more belly picture b/c the next time we see each other we will both have little ones instead of big bellies! At least I hope we will! :)

It is kind of funny but I am actually feeling better and have more energy right now than I have the entire pregnancy! Maybe that means it will be soon...I'm not sure, but all of the sudden I am not in a huge hurry to have the baby.

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My doctor has talked about helping me along if I am too uncomfortable, once I reach 38 weeks, but if I keep feeling this good I will probably just let things take their natural course. It IS getting really hard to put socks and shoes on, and pick things up, and read to K without her falling off my lap onto the floor. Haha, maybe I will let him speed things along after all. :)

A Million Christmas Lights

It seems weird to be blogging about Christmas lights when it feels like Christmas was about two months ago, instead of only two weeks. Funny how that happens. But I still want to get these pictures up.

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For our "babymoon" we decided to just stick close to home and go to a resort that is only one town away. They had Christmas packages that went along with their light cruises - a cruise across the lake. We had been wanting to take K to it anyway so since we had free tickets as part of our package, we just got four more tickets and invited my mom, grandma, aunt, and cousin to join us. After the show was over K went home with them and we got to go out to dinner, a movie (Sherlock Holmes - it was pretty good!) and then stay at the resort.

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Here we are about to get on the boat. It was really cold...about 25 not counting the windchill, but it was still really fun!

They send two boats at a time, and my aunt got a picture of the other one to show what we were on.

On the way across the lake we sat inside on the bottom deck b/c it was so cold. We all got hot chocolate and T bought a rice crispy treat that was half the size of my head...not exaggerating, I have never seen one so big!

According to the cruise director they have over a million lights (light bulbs that is) and the resort's boardwalk is loaded down with them. It is fun to see all the different things. The mermaid castle is there in the middle of this picture.

And my personal favorite was the nativity. I love the way the lights reflect in the water making it look like there are really two million lights!

When we got across the lake we went up to the top of the boat b/c you are at the "North Pole".

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Noni, K, and Baby and Me :)

Santa and Mrs. Clause are there to greet you from their boat house. :) They have you sign a list so that they can say each child's name. Even though we didn't do Santa with K she got pretty excited when he called out her name. She sat there for about 15 seconds and then a smile started to spread across her face. She talked about it the rest of the night. :)

Then it was back downstairs to re-cross. It was absolutely freezing when the boat was moving and all that wind was coming off the water. Thankfully there was a big table inside to escape to. From K's expression I guess she was getting a little tired at this point. :)

We got back to dry land and there were several Holiday characters there to send us off. We had to get a picture with K's favorite holiday guy, Frosty. She loved Frosty this year...every snowman she saw in December was "FROSTY!" And she actually knew all the words to the song...or her version of them, "With a torn pob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of foal". I wonder if he'll be as big of a hit next year. :)

We parted ways after that and K wasn't too happy that we were not coming back with her. It was hard to leave her...or rather let her leave us, but I am so glad we did. It was the first time in almost three years that we have stayed the night on our own...and consequently the first time in almost three years that we got to sleep in until ten!

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We had breakfast in a really nice restaurant overlooking the lake and then spent the rest of the day shopping and just enjoying our time together.
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And K did just fine without us. Here's a picture my mom took of her saying goodnight, she doesn't look too sure about it, but when we got back the next day she didn't even try to hug us, just launched into telling us about all the things she had done, so I think she had a good time. :)

So that was the end of our Christmas vacation Part 1 - my family. We said our goodbyes and headed out to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Part 2. I will get to pictures of that another day.

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Here's K saying goodbye to "Uncle" Sean. :)

And Aunt Karen...which is hard since she lives all the way in Texas and we won't be able to see her again for a while. We miss you already Karen!

Okay, one more "Christmas" post should do it and then I get back to real - time blog posts. :) I did get a new camera so I'm back in business. It's a really nice one and I am very happy to have it here before the baby comes. Now I just have to figure out how to use it. :)